Huge parties or a one arm bandit?

October 18th, 2006, 23:07

I love creating lots of characters in games…and it seems these days you have to go solo to play a new, whiz-bang, bells and whistles blazing CRPG. It's fine and all, but I like parties of 6-8 characters! What do you think…do you even care?

In my opinion, creating one charachter, and focussing on making that one characther the "Ultimate" is the best. That is why I only have 1 character in WoW, and I focus everything on him. When making several chars, I always have the feeling that I give more attention to only one of them.

I like 4 character parties, ala Might and Magic or Ultima, especially if the skills balance themselves out. I never really enjoyed having more than that. However I do enjoy single character games, ala Gothic and The Elder Scrolls.

Depends on the style of the game. With TB type combat, I want a self created party (think Wiz 8), while with RT, I want solo only; I hate NPC's who rush into the middle of my just cast fireball and get themselves killed!!

Definitely prefer solo. Even if you have a lot of control over your party, I sometimes hate it to depend on AI (artificial idiocy ). Especially in games like KotOR where you need to pay rather close attention to what the party members are doing so they don't get themselves or everyone in the party into trouble. If I wanted to play a babysitting simulator, then I'm sure that EA has a fitting Sims expansion pack for me if I really cared but I don't need that crap in an RPG .

I like it when the game offers you a choice. Being possible to finish the game both when going solo , or as a group. When it comes to DnD based games, I like having large groups (4-8), as that is what DnD is balanced for. NWN never really cut it for me, and having an idiotic henchman you couldnt control was one of the reasons, thats why I can't wait for NWN2. I have heard rumors on the official site that you can in your own modules, open up for controlling as many party members as you could possibly want at the same time.

NWN really comes into its own when you play online with others, preferably in a DM'd campaign!! If you combine that with Skype for voice while playing, as some of us here do, then it's a fantastic, fun experience. We're waiting with great anticipation to do that with NWN2 as well!!

It all depends on the game - things like Fire Emblem work for a reason … same is true with Icewind Dale with 6 or KotOR / NWN with 2 or 3. I got into the habit of solo-ing NWN, but then they started having non-useless henchmen

I love playing solo like in Gothic or Divine divinity,
although the Kotor was team combat, that was the only team battle I ever liked.
Rather give me a good sword or axe, or even 2. or combined with a good shield and let me become an uberwarrior who just likes to go between a group of enemeies and try to slaughter them all at once

I find that no matter what role I feel like playing (be it stealth, caster, melee or whatever) I never use npcs. If I can control them, sure, I'll bring em along. But mostly I prefer to do things on my own since the computer, in every single game known to man, thinks that getting in my way or rushing large groups of enemies is helpful.

I prefer 4-8 characters. I don't mind the odd single character RPG ala Gothic, but in those games I kind of find you are really just playing a representation of yourself (or who would like to be)- like when I am playing Gothic, I like to think of myself as being the nameless hero…

Party or no party system, if the RPG part is well done I don't care all that much. There are moments when I'd prefer a single character - but a party has it's advantages just as well.

However, what I'd like to see in a RPG is the actual possibility to realistically choose between a party or a single character. I've yet to see a game where that's part of the game play decisions - like choosing combat over diplomacy or stealth over magic. For instance, certain quests could be solved by a party only - fighting multiple strong enemies or having to be at different places at the same time. Other quests wouldn't be available for a party at all - e. g. stealth missions where are party can be more a burden than help.

Sure, we can play through Baldur's Gate 2 as a single character, or through NWN, but that's obviously not intended. The only exception I can think of is Fallout and Fallout 2, but all in all it doesn't make much of a difference there as it only influences how hard combat can be.